Game:

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003)

Duration: 1:39:02

1,498 views

19

This is a speedrun of Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (Japanese). I played this using a Gameboy Player and a GBA SP as a controller.

The run had an amazing start and end but the middle segments could still use some improvement due to uncooperative barrel glitching.

I really like running this game because of how glitchy it is and the fact there is surprisingly very little randomness in the game. My current goal is to get a low 1:34 or 1:33.

Some important things to note about a Superstar Saga run for those who have not seen one before:

1. I use the Japanese version because there are some glitches in the game that only exist on the Japanese version which save roughly 35 minutes over the English version.

2. I collect a lot of items and coins. This is required to purchase the Mush Badge and a lot of mushrooms later in the game. The Mush Badge is an extremely powerful badge which greatly increases my minimum damage per hit, making moves like Chopper Bros very powerful.

3. Running away from battles is not an option. Running loses a lot of money and makes buying the Mush Badge nearly impossible. In a perfect run I would get no extra encounters but sometimes it can't be helped.

4. Hige (Stache) is the luck stat. A higher Stache provides three benefits: Higher chance of lucky hits (useless), Sell price of items is higher, and buy price of items is lower. I increase this a few times on level up to afford the Mush Badge.

5. Barrel clipping is a glitch I use to clip through walls. This is used to get Firebrand early and to setup some of the other glitches.

6. The screen becoming a pixelated mess in some parts of the run is a side effect of the Action Command glitch. By giving Mario High Jump I can manipulate action commands into anything I want including non-standard actions such as Barrel Hop. This allows me to conjure barrels and setup other glitches such as Hat Teleporting.

7. Level up bonuses can be timed to get what you want but it is very difficult to time correctly. There's a 3 frame window to get the number you want, but the problem is seeing the number you want since 20 numbers fly by every second. It could be considered random but it is technically not.

8. Advance moves for Bros Attacks are unlocked after a number of successful uses. The two main ones this run is concerned is Splash Bros (20 uses) and Knockback Bros (43 uses). Splash Advanced defeats Queen Bean quickly and Knockback Advanced is required to defeat Cackletta. I spend a short amount of time farming Splash Bros at the beginning of the run and a small portion in the second half of the run on Knockback Bros.

9. Defeating Popple and Birdo triggers endgame because if you played the game normally this would be the last fight you do before Bowser's Castle.

http://www.twitch.tv/altabiscuit/c/4209535

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